DOVER — They had to sit through two rain delays and didn’t receive their trophy until 11 p.m.

But nothing was going to quell the Dover High boys’ celebration.

The Senators earned the Division I track and field boys’ state championship late Tuesday night as the second day of the state meet wrapped up at 10:48 after a pair of weather delays.

Padua won the Division II girls’ competition ahead of No. 2 Smyrna while the Division II champions were A.I. du Pont for the boys and Tatnall for the girls.

Dover was led by Tayshaun Chisholm and Jakari Long who each won three gold medals.

Chisholm swept the hurdles winning both the 110-meter hurdles (14:11) and the 300-meter hurdles (38.41). Long won the 100-meter dash in 11:03 and the 200 in 22.25.

The two were also part of the winning 4×200-meter relay team. Also on that team were Tykwan Joyner and Dalonzo Bouges.

The meet was originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday but had to be moved to Monday and Tuesday because of weather.

“Once we knew it was going to start on Monday I told the team everybody just has to run hard and we did the best we could do,” Chisholm said. “Coming into the finals today, I said give it all gas, no brakes. That’s what we did and we ended coming up on top.”

Smyrna’s Lauren Summers flashes a smile on her way to winning the Girls Division 1 4 x 100 Meter Relay final at Dover. (Delaware State News/Marc Clery)

The meet was delayed at 7:01 p.m. due to a lightning strike. Once the runners returned to the more than an hour later, another bolt was lightning was seen, sending all athletes inside to the gym.

The meet finally resumed after a two-hour delay with Dover trailing Salesianum by a point and a half.

Dover started the comeback in the first race when Nate Guy, who was seeded sixth in the 800-meters, finished third, passing two runners from Salesianum on the final lap for some key points. Long and Chisholm then finished first and third in the next race, the 200-meters to pull ahead in the team standings.

“During the delay, Nate actually took a nap, must’ve been a good nap,” Chisholm said. “The rain delay kind of helped me out, my calves were kind of hurting, so it gave me some time to roll them out. Me and Jakari, we knew we just had to stay warm.”

It was the second-straight title for the Dover boys. The senior class leaves with a combined four state championships between indoor and outdoor track.

“We’re senior-laden and they did a heck of a job,” said Dover coach James Solomon. “They came out and worked for it. They worked hard. I can’t say enough about our strength and conditioning coach James Kilby. The guys bought into it and here were are.”

The Smyrna girls combined for four first-place finishes in the Division I meet.

Madi Keister, in her first year as a hurdler, captured the state championship in the 300-meter hurdles in 45.90. Freshman Lauren Summers also won an individual title with a 12.18 performance in the 100-meter dash.

Shaneese LaMons, Saani Edwards, Sierra Romaine and Aniyah Black teamed up to run a 48.73 in the 4×100 for another Eagles gold. Keister, LaMons, Edwards and Summers won their second gold medals as part of the 4×200 team which won in 1:43.02.

The Caesar Rodney boys posted one champion on the day behind Forrest Booker’s performance in the long jump.

The only other winner from downstate in the boys’ Division I meet on Tuesday was the 4×100 team from Sussex Tech. Dimitry Edouard, Julian Roach, Nolan Lamontagne and Deshawn Sample bested the field with a time of 43.19.

Lake Forest’s 4×200 boys’ team also took home a state championship in Division II. Ja-Juan Reid, Tyare Miller, Diante Cannon and Desaun Bizzel raced their way to a time of 1:31.08.

Other downstate winners in the Division I girls’ meet included Dover’s Lindesy Wong in the high jump (5-2), Sussex Tech’s Ruby Mullen in the triple jump (37-4) and Cape Henlopen’s Ceyra Middleton in the shot put (38-5).

Jada Gourdine of Lake Forest won gold in the Division II 110 hurdles with a time of 15.65.

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